Below is an excerpt from the Black Republicans series on The Urban Politico entitled "Black Republicans: The Beginning"
This series was inspired by the following question heard all throughout the Black Community from the blogosphere to the barber shop: "How in the hell could a Black person ever vote Republican?!?!?"
Although, lately, many of us here at The Urban Politico may have been guilty of wondering the same thing (don't act like it's just us) we decided to go beyond the hype and take a deeper look at the connection between the Republican Party and the Black Community. We wanted to know why 4% of the Black Community felt so passionately about a political party that they would risk voting against the first (and for all we know, perhaps the last) Black President in United States history. We wanted to know how people as night and day as Colin Powell and Michael Steele seem to be can possibly belong to the same club. And most importantly, we wanted to know how it all started. So over these next few weeks in April, in honor of our Book of the Month, we're about to get down to the bottom of all this Black Republicanism, and we warn you in advance: the answers may shock you!
Since this is the first part of the series we figured it is only appropriate to start at the beginning. As it turns out, when the Republican Party started back in 1854, the question we would have all been asking ourselves back then is "how in the hell could a Black person ever vote Democratic?!" Although it may be hard for some of you to picture by today's standards, did you know that the Democratic Party, which had been around for about 60 years by the time the Republicans got their start, was effectively the pro-slavery party?
Continue reading at The Urban Politico